“However, the biggest surprise was photographic evidence of the black-footed tree rat.

“We were a bit unsure at first, we tried to explain it away and said ‘no, it can’t be, it can’t be, it’s got to be this or it’s got to be that’ but the images speak for themselves which was really exciting.

“It had not been seen in the Kimberley since 1987, despite considerable survey efforts during this period.”

It’s the age-old question: where do we come from? New fossil evidence suggests the first spark of life may have occurred in a hot spring on land rather than a hydrothermal vent in the deep sea.

Charles Darwin proposed in 1871 that life originated in a “warm little pond”. But the dominant theory nowadays is that primitive microorganisms first assembled in hot, chemical-rich water at hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean.

One reason for favouring this marine model is that fossil evidence of early land-based microbial life has been lacking. Until recently, the oldest evidence of life on land was only 2.8 billion years old, whereas the oldest evidence from the sea was 3.7 billion years old.

Now, a team led by Tara Djokic at the University of New South Wales in Australia has discovered fossils of land-based microorganisms. They were found in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks in an extinct volcano in the Dresser Formation in the hot, dry, remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The fossils include stromatolites – layered rock structures created by microorganisms – and circular holes left in the rock by gas bubbles that look like they were once trapped by sticky microbial substances. Both types of structures are preserved in geyserite, a type of rock that is only found in and around freshwater hot springs in volcanic areas on land.

Land-based launch pad?

The findings suggest that microbes were present on land and in the ocean around the same time, says Djokic. The question is – which came first?

“There are now a number of converging lines of evidence that point to terrestrial hot springs over hydrothermal vents for the origin of life,” says Djokic.

Small bodies of water like hot springs may have been more conducive to the formation of life because they can evaporate and concentrate the building blocks of life, says Djokic. “In hot springs, you’ve also got a nutritious concoction of elements because hot fluids circulate through the underlying rocks and bring up different minerals,” she says.

Recent research suggests that the element mix in ancient hot springs would have been more likely to give rise to life than that of deep sea vents.

Primitive microorganisms formed in the springs could have then spread to the sea, where they could have adapted and continued to evolve, Djokic says.

The findings are compelling, says Gregory Webb at the University of Queensland in Australia. “There are lots of microbes that live in terrestrial hot springs today, so it’s not a stretch to believe that an ancient hot spring could have accommodated life,” he says.

Then again, making assertions about life on early Earth is tricky, says Webb. “Microbial life isn’t easy to see, even today, so rocks that preserve evidence of ancient bacteria are hard to find and hard to study.” He is not ruling out the deep sea model of the origin of life.

Djokic and her colleagues believe the research could have implications for the search for ancient life on Mars. Earth and Mars both formed around 4.5 billion years ago and had volcanoes and hot springs dotted across their surfaces.

“If life can be preserved in hot springs so far back in Earth’s history, then there is a good chance it could be preserved in Martian hot springs too,” says Djokic.

One of the three potential landing sites for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission is Columbia Hills, a rocky formation that is thought to have once been a hot spring environment.

A paradigm-shifting hypothesis could reshape our idea about the origin of life

July 18, 2017

Summary: A new discovery pushes back the time for the emergence of microbial life on land by 580 million years and also bolsters a paradigm-shifting hypothesis that life began, not in the sea, but on land.

For three years, Tara Djokic, a Ph.D. student at the University of New South Wales Sydney, scoured the forbidding landscape of the Pilbara region of Western Australia looking for clues to how ancient microbes could have produced the abundant stromatolites that were discovered there in the 1970s.

Stromatolites are round, multilayered mineral structures that range from the size of golf balls to weather balloons and represent the oldest evidence that there were living organisms on Earth 3.5 billion years ago.

Scientists who believed life began in the ocean thought these mineral formations had formed in shallow, salty seawater, just like living stromatolites in the World Heritage-listed area of Shark Bay, which is a two-day drive from the Pilbara.

The discovery pushed back the time for the emergence of microbial life on land by 580 million years and also bolstered a paradigm-shifting hypothesis laid out by UC Santa Cruz astrobiologists David Deamer and Bruce Damer: that life began, not in the sea, but on land.

Djokic’s discovery — together with research carried out by the UC Santa Cruz team, Djokic, and Martin Van Kranendonk, director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology — is described in an eight-page cover story in the August issue of Scientific American.

“What she (Djokic) showed was that the oldest fossil evidence for life was in fresh water,” said Deamer, a lanky 78-year-old who explored the region with Djokic, Damer, and Van Kranendonk in 2015. “It’s a logical continuation to life beginning in a freshwater environment.”

The model for life beginning on land rather than in the sea could not only reshape our idea about the origin of life and where else it might be, but even change the way we view ourselves.

The right conditions for life

For four decades, ever since the research vessel Alvin discovered deep-sea hydrothermal vents that were habitats for specialized bacteria and worms that looked like something out of a science-fiction novel, scientists have theorized that these mineral- and gas-pumping vents were just what was needed for life to begin.

But Deamer, who describes himself as a scientist who loves playing with new ideas, thought the theory had flaws. For instance, molecules essential for the origin of life would be dispersed too quickly into a vast ocean, he thought, and salty seawater would inhibit some of the processes he knew are necessary for life to begin.

Deamer had spent the early part of his career studying the biophysics of membranes composed of soap-like molecules that form the microscopic boundaries of all living cells. Later, given a piece of the Murchison meteorite that had landed in Australia in 1969, Deamer found that the space rock also contained soap-like molecules nearly 5 billion years old that could form stable membranes. Still later, he demonstrated that membranes helped small molecules join together to form longer information-carrying molecules called polymers.

Trekking to volcanoes from Russia to Iceland and hiking through the Pilbara desert, Deamer and his colleagues observed volcanic activity that suggested the idea that hot springs provided the right environment for the beginning of life. Deamer even built a machine that simulated the heat, acidity, and wet-and-dry cycles of hot springs and installed it in his lab on the UC Santa Cruz campus.

“I think, every once in awhile, you have to be brave enough and bold enough to try new ideas,” Deamer said. “Of course, some of my colleagues think even ‘foolish enough.’ But that’s the chance you take.”

Rethinking the timeline

In Deamer’s vision, ancient Earth consisted of a huge ocean spotted with volcanic land masses. Rain would fall on the land, creating pools of fresh water that would be heated by geothermal energy and then cooled by runoff. Some of the key building blocks of life, created during the formation of our solar system, would have fallen to Earth and gathered in these pools, becoming concentrated enough to form more complex organic compounds.

The edges of the pools would go through periods of wetting and drying as water levels rose and fell. During these periods of wet and dry, lipid membranes would first help stitch together the organic compounds called polymers and then form compartments that encapsulated different sets of these polymers. The membranes would act like incubators for the functions of life.

Deamer and his team believe the first life emerged from the natural production of vast numbers of such membrane-encased “protocells.”

While there is still debate about whether life began on land or in the sea, the discovery of ancient microbial fossils in a place like the Pilbara shows that these geothermal areas — full of energy and rich in the minerals necessary for life — harbored living microorganisms far earlier than believed.

The search for life on other planets

According to Deamer and his colleagues, this discovery and their hot-springs-origins model also have implications for the search for life on other planets. If life began on land, then Mars, which was found to have a 3.65-billion-year-old hot spring deposits similar to those found in the Pilbara region of Australia, might be a good place to look.

For Damer, the new “end-to-end hypothesis” of how life began on land offers something else: that the origin of life was not just a simple story of individual, competing cells. Rather that a plausible new vision of life’s start could be a communal unit of protocells that survived and evolved through collaboration and sharing of innovation rather than strict competition.

“That,” he said, “is a fundamental shift that might impact how we think of our world, ourselves, and our future: as dependent on collaboration as much as being driven by competition.”

Sitting in his fourth-floor office on campus, Deamer smiled as he recounted the letter Charles Darwin wrote to a friend in 1871, which speculated that life might have begun in “some warm little pond.”

Conventional scientific wisdom has it that plants and other creatures have only lived on land for about 500 million years, but a new study is pointing to evidence for life on land that is four times as old — at 2.2 billion years ago and almost half way back to the inception of the planet: here.

The earliest example of an organism living on land — an early type of fungus — has been identified. The organism, from 440 million years ago, likely kick-started the process of rot and soil formation, which encouraged the later growth and diversification of life on land: here.

A team of Tasmanian researchers has uncovered rare, living stromatolites deep within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area: here.

An unprecedented 21 different types of dinosaur tracks have been identified on a 25-kilometre stretch of the Dampier Peninsula coastline dubbed “Australia’s Jurassic Park.”

A team of palaeontologists from The University of Queensland’s School of Biological Sciences and James Cook University‘s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences braved sharks, crocodiles, massive tides and the threat of development to unveil the most diverse assemblage of dinosaur tracks in the world in 127 to 140 million-year-old rocks in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Lead author Dr Steve Salisbury said the diversity of the tracks around Walmadany (James Price Point) was globally unparalleled and made the area the “Cretaceous equivalent of the Serengeti.”

“It is extremely significant, forming the primary record of non-avian dinosaurs in the western half the continent and providing the only glimpse of Australia’s dinosaur fauna during the first half of the Early Cretaceous Period,” Dr Salisbury said.

“It’s such a magical place — Australia’s own Jurassic Park, in a spectacular wilderness setting.”

In 2008, the Western Australian Government selected Walmadany as the preferred site for a $40 billion liquid natural gas processing precinct.

The area’s Traditional Custodians, the Goolarabooloo people, contacted Dr Salisbury and his team, who dedicated more than 400 hours to investigating and documenting the dinosaur tracks.

“We needed the world to see what was at stake,” Goolarabooloo Law Boss Phillip Roe said.

The dinosaur tracks form part of a song cycle that extends along the coast and then inland for 450 km, tracing the journey of a Dreamtime creator being called Marala, the Emu man.

“Marala was the Lawgiver. He gave country the rules we need to follow. How to behave, to keep things in balance,” Mr Roe said said.

“It’s great to work with UQ researchers. We learnt a lot from them and they learnt a lot from us.”

Dr Salisbury said the surrounding political issues made the project “particularly intense,” and he was relieved when National Heritage listing was granted to the area in 2011 and the gas project collapsed in 2013.

“There are thousands of tracks around Walmadany. Of these, 150 can confidently be assigned to 21 specific track types, representing four main groups of dinosaurs, ” Dr Salisbury said.

Researchers at Scripps Oceanography and the Western Australian Museum capture on video the first-ever field sighting of the newly discovered third species of seadragon. As they observed two Ruby Seadragons on video for nearly 30 minutes, the scientists uncovered new details about their anatomy, habitat, and behavior.

There was not only a Trump University in the USA. There still is a Murdoch University in Australia.

However, unlike Trump University, Murdoch University is not a for-profit business. And it is not owned by, or called after, Rupert Murdoch. It is named after Sir Walter Logie Forbes Murdoch, Rupert’s great-uncle. Who was not a media billionaire, but a professor of English.

However, now it looks like things at Murdoch University are getting similar to Rupert Murdoch‘s and Donald Trump’s businesses.

MURDOCH University in Perth, Western Australia, is attempting to force ‘safety-net award conditions’ onto staff – slashing their pay by up to 80 per cent.

‘It is an anti-union attack that risks the world-standard resource which makes Australian Universities so desirable for domestic and international students – their staff,’ said the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) on Tuesday.

The ACTU has written to Vice Chancellor Professor Eeva Leinonen, calling on the university to cease the unnecessary industrial conflict and engage in genuine negotiations with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to find a deal which will continue to draw the best and brightest to the university to work and study without cutting pay and stripping conditions.

ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said: ‘The unnecessarily aggressive approach taken by Murdoch University is disappointing, and we have written to Vice Chancellor Professor Eeva Leinonen urging her to reconsider this tragically short-sighted action which risks destroying the quality of staff at her university.

‘We expect that the university will recommence bargaining in good faith with the union and come to an agreement which will not strip of pay and conditions on the understanding that without them, universities are nothing.

‘With a positive approach from the university, rather than continued antagonism, we believe this dispute can be resolved quickly so that it doesn’t impact on the sterling reputation that Australian higher education sector has rightfully earned internationally.’

Murdoch University management has applied to the Fair Work Commission to terminate the enterprise agreement covering academic and general staff in a move the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) describes as showing a complete lack of respect to dedicated employees.

If successful, this application would mean that the only industrial instrument regulating the employment conditions of Murdoch staff would be the terms of the safety-net modern Award which are way below the enterprise agreement conditions.

‘The NTEU has been negotiating a new enterprise agreement since April, but the University has taken an aggressive stance, demanding wide and deep cuts to staff working conditions while pursuing costly and time-consuming legal avenues. Consequently union members took protected industrial action last Wednesday.

‘Management immediately filed for conciliation listed for this coming Friday, but before this could occur sought to terminate the current enterprise agreement. They didn’t even have the decency to put their plan to a staff vote. Staff of the university, whether union members or not, cannot see this as anything other than a co-ordinated attack on employment conditions by a management team that has completely abandoned all principles of fairness and decency toward staff,’ said Gooding.

NTEU General Secretary, Grahame McCulloch has sent an email to NTEU members across the country describing the attack as an ‘unprecedented act never seen before in the university sector.’

McCulloch wrote that a successful application: ‘would give the management, if it chooses, the capacity to demolish working conditions including the possibility of: reducing wages by 25–39 per cent; cutting redundancy entitlements by one third for academics and 80 per cent for professional staff; removing all academic workload regulation; ending rights to academic and intellectual freedom; and eliminating employer provided paid parental leave.’

Gooding added that the actions of Murdoch management are like those taken by rogue employers in the mining and construction industries, such as Griffin Coal, that resulted in a reduction in the pay of those workers by up to 43 per cent. The Western Australian Division of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) warned: ‘Murdoch senior management is engaged in the shameful act of attempting to axe the university’s employment agreement, which would erase wages and conditions of its teaching staff.’

Gabe Gooding said: ‘How will Murdoch staff ever be able to trust the management again? Neither have the management had the courage or the respect for staff to put their proposal to a ballot.’

Murdoch University students have spoken out in support of the fight of the workers:

• ‘I study at Murdoch University and the actions taken by Vice Chancellor Eeva Leinonen are shameful. The Vice Chancellor has seen fit to attack the work and pay conditions of the Murdoch University staff, this is especially raw as Murdoch senior officers are taking greater employee benefits and expecting staff to take pay cuts.’

• ‘This is a shameful act, and as a student of Murdoch University, I stand with the teaching and service staff. I stand with them because learning at an institution that has great employment conditions fosters a learning environment that benefits the students. As a student I also refuse to be part of an institution that so ruthlessly takes an axe to the workers terms and conditions.’

• ‘Not only is Murdoch’s management trying to remove the conditions fought for by their staff, but they have also tried to put a gag order on the union to stop it communicating with its members. This is not a Vice chancellor that negotiates in good faith, this is someone who wants to employ snake tactics in order to gut what makes Murdoch a great university… Its staff!’

• ‘Murdoch claims it is the university of innovation, but there is nothing innovative about its underhanded tactics. Think Murdoch, Think Shame!’ Murdoch University is home to over 18,500 students including 3,000 international students from over 100 countries.

• ACTU Secretary Oliver also launched an attack on the government of Australian Prime Minister Turnbull on Tuesday, saying: ‘Malcolm Turnbull has delivered the worst of both worlds: massive spending cuts hurting ordinary Australians and an economy in reverse gear.

‘After promising jobs and growth, Turnbull and his team have instead delivered high unemployment, record-low wage growth and now the real possibility of a recession – the first one in 25 years. The Government’s only plan is a massive hand-out for corporations who already don’t pay their fair share – and absolutely nothing for hardworking Australians.

‘Unemployment remains high while underemployment continues to grow, with historically low wage growth, increasing job casualisation and insecurity. The Australian economy has just gone backwards for the first time since 2008, at the peak of the GFC.

‘This Government refuses to acknowledge that we have a revenue problem and has squibbed tax reforms which would ensure we have enough revenue to pay for essential services. This Government also refuses to acknowledge its own role in driving down wages, not only is this forcing Australian workers to make do with less, but it is blowing a hole in government revenue, and continues to be a drag on economic growth.

‘We’ve already seen cuts to education, pensions, dental care, assistance for families, carers, unemployed people and students, research and development and investment in renewable energy. Mr Turnbull could give all Australians some good news ahead of Christmas and outline a plan for growth based on more well paid, secure jobs.’

The weather gods conspired to provide a rare chance to survey a remote and rarely visited section of north Kimberley reef recently, with footage that will inform the future study of reefs through climate change.

Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPAW) researchers and Wunambal Gaambera traditional owners took advantage of the rare weather conditions to visit East Holothuria Reef, about 30km from the tip of Bougainville Peninsula, to conduct coral surveys.

They uncovered a flourishing and extremely biodiverse reef system, resplendent with corals and fishes, in a spectacular and never-before-studied part of the Kimberley’s underwater world.

“It is right in the top corner of the Bougainville Peninsula where wind-against-tides creates very rough sea conditions for much of the time,” says DPAW research scientist Andrew Halford.

“But we lucked-in with glass-off weather during neap tides—it was like a good perfect storm.”

The team traversed multiple 100-metre transects of the reef placing a camera on the bottom every 10 metres, which took photos every five seconds to record the diversity of the coral community.

Such footage will be used as a benchmark at monitoring sites across the north Kimberley, to enable conservation managers to study how reefs change and respond to different circumstances such as storms or a changing climate.

“We will be establishing long-term monitoring sites in the Kimberley that we can go back to and keep track of over time,” Dr Halford says.

“We’ll be able to see whether healthy reef communities can adapt to changing conditions over time.”

These organisations are using large research vessels to study the diversity of the Kimberley marine benthic environment. The DPAW survey complimented their work by assessing shallower near-shore areas that are inaccessible to the larger boats.

Dr Halford says traditional owners are also playing an important role in monitoring these remote marine systems.

“As well as providing traditional knowledge of these areas, the idea is that eventually traditional owner groups will go out and do the surveying themselves,” Dr Halford says.

“They can take the footage and then the images can be sent to experts for analysis.”